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When I first started thinking of a
better way to make a fixed gear bicycle hub, my primary focus was on
the cog engagement. The cog/hub interface to be exact. I
began by analysing all the forces that a sprocket will be subjected to
in an off-road environment. They are many, not just the driving
and braking torques, I assure you. After coming up with a basic
concept, I started to talk to people. People who know
things. Things like machining, CAD, bike industry pulse and how
to brew a kick ass beer. It was a long winter.
Several batches of really good beer and the G-code (the language used
in the computer aided lathes and mills for machining) for a bike hub
came out of it.
While the sprocket engagement was the priority, I soon realized that I
was working with, essentially, a blank canvas and could do anything I
wanted. I could take all those frustrating moments I have had
with all of my past bike hubs and make something that worked.
Worked in a way that was simple. And was easily fixed if and when
it failed to work no matter where I was. That led to a design
philosophy that I still
base all of my new concepts around. I took a good hard look at
the "special tools" needed to repair, change or rebuild a hub and made
it my mission to eliminate them. Sorry Park, but I think it
is a travesty what the top component manufacturers are doing to the
industry. (In more ways than one.)
The design criteria below came about from a full winter reflecting on
problems I personally had or saw come into the shop I worked at in
DC. They also reflect a wish list of sorts. Kind of a "How
cool would it be if..." scenario when designing something.
I wanted to pantent this. First understand that there are several
types of patents. In this case, the two that I was dealing with
were either a utility patent or a design patent. I chose to go
for a utility patent. They are harder to get but cover more
"territory". The design patent only covers the
"Design". Kind of like how eye glasses can be patented. The
utility of eyewear was invented a long time ago, it's the design
that is patented. I initially thought I had come up with a pretty
revolutionary idea and therefore thought that the utility of
bolting the hub around a set of arcuate keyways was something
never done. Yes, sprockets have been bolted on before but not in
the same manner, reasoned.
The utility
of the sprocket being bolted to "unitary molded hub", as scene by the
patent office, however, would have been "obvious at the time of
invention" of such other bicycle components as the splined bottom
bracket. They also sighted a paragraph from the Code of Federal
Regulations stating that any product that has been manufactured and
sold on the open market for more than a year may not be patented.
This was my out.
The last bit of information basically gave me free reign on what I
have created and have been selling, at the time of the correspondence
with the USPTO,
for 3 years. No patent required I deduced. Understand also
that a patent only serves to establish a timeline of invention.
It does not necessarily protect you from the bastard, concept stealing,
assholes that this industry seems to be ripe with. Having already
set up and established a business revolving around this product is more
than enough proof of ownership in my book.
The pics below illustrate the concept from beginning to the patent
stage. The one on the left is the culmination of several ideas
from doodles and random thoughts to wishes and engineering background
concepts. The pic on the right is one of the many actual diagrams as submitted to the
USPTO.
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